Links, 1.19.12

Free roaming: Kansas residents with a valid driver’s license can get free access to more than 8 million Kansas records on Ancestry via an agreement with Ancestry.com and the Kansas Historical Society. (Although I feel bad for Kansas residents who don’t happen to drive, for whatever reason.)

Village, revisited: Can you go home again? Journalist Alex Weisler had reason to ponder the question when he visited Shatsk, the shtetl in western Ukraine from which his family emigrated. A nice summary of a complex but ultimately rewarding trip.

Growth: The Family Tree app is in the top 20 of fast-growing Facebook apps, according to Inside Facebook. At No. 9, it’s several spots behind Birthday Calendar but one step ahead of TripAdvisor. Somehow that sequence seems appropriate, I don’t know why.